I deleted all the files on the external USB drive (H:) that I use as the backup for my F: data drive in preparation for getting a good, clean F: backup with no extraneous files.

When I checked my F: drive before running the backup it was completely empty!. Well, not completely empty -- the Recycle Bin folder is still there (129 bytes) and System Volume Information folder is there (0 bytes), but NOTHING ELSE. I suppose it is remotely possible that I deleted the files on the F: drive and not the H: drive, but that is unlikely -- I triple checked the drive letter as I did the deletions, and the H: drive is empty as well.

I have not written a single byte to the F: drive since the disaster, so the data should be recoverable with an undelete utility. Right? Please, please tell me that it can be recovered. The data on that drive represents an enormous amount of my time and work. It is all replicable, but would take a minimum of six months to do. Over 200 GB of data, hundreds of hours of my time...

What should I do now? My first impulse is to download an undelete program and turn it loose, but considering the magnitutde of the problem and the value of the data, I want to get expert opinion and specific recommendations first.

Oh, and just to make things worse (maybe not, maybe it makes them better?) when I deleted the files (if I actually deleted them from the F: drive and not the H: drive) I deleted them with Shift-DEL, bypassing the recycle bin.

Recommendations?

tanstaafl.